This study is designed to determine the effect of functional nursing and primary nursing modalities on the quality of nursing care provided postpartal cesarean section patients who constitute part of a high-risk maternity population. Lang's model for quality assurance in nursing will be used. The classical structure-process-outcome approach to evaluation of health services will be followed. The quasi-experimental design is a multivariate fixed effect model with one independent factor, nursing modality, and eight dependent measures of quality nursing care. Subjects will be women meeting specified criteria who are admitted to the postpartum unit of a large metropolitan hospital. The two control groups will experience functional nursing; the experimental group; primary nursing. Data will be collected from direct observation, patient interview, patient questionnaire, and hospital chart by the use of three instruments to measure quality nursing care. The mean scores of each group on each of the eight measures will be analyzed using a multivariate analysis, tested for significance, analyzed for significant relationships, and used to accept or reject the null hypotheses. The primary significance of this study will be the determination of the interrelationships between selected structural, process, and outcome variables in the patient care system as indicators of quality nursing care. The results will provide information to facilitate administrative decision-making regarding the organizations's efficiency and effectiveness as it relates to the quality of nursing care provided maternity patients.